From its beginning in 2007, industry leaders recognized the value of the AAPG Imperial Barrel Award Program and generously supported its intent with their financial sponsorship.

Now in its third year, industry sponsorships of IBA support a program that this year expanded to include students from 88 universities worldwide.

IBA’s educational and career development features come from the data analysis and prospect presentation exercise, in the form of feedback from industry judges and networking with potential future employers. The program simulates a real-world industry-working environment (i.e. limited data, short study period and an even shorter presentation time).

This year corporate leaders are supporting and helping to increase the program value with more than their money:

IBA’s educational value is multiplied many times over by industry mentors who adopt a participating university, giving of their time and skills to coach a team in the finer points of presentation skills. Industry mentors give feedback and serve as a mirror to help improve a team’s presentation skills to motivate a deeper level of critical thinking – and to shape a young professional.

Nigerian-based Fixital donated use of its conference and computer facilities for the Petrel training and added two training instructors.

Bob Stewart, global geoscience recruiting supervisor with ExxonMobil Exploration will offer a short course on Saturday, June 6, following the IBA global finals competition. The course is designed for university faculty advisors to better prepare future teams for the IBA competition. (Stewart’s class is limited to 40 participants.)

By the time IBA finals occur, 435 students from 87 universities in 23 countries will be exceedingly more marketable to potential employers. And when professors use IBA as a lab exercise, semester capstone project, or demonstration project of and entire course, the range of IBA impact grows exponentially.

The 2009 IBA Committee, chaired by Connie Mongold, wishes to express “sincere thanks to the IBA Section and Region coordinators, judges, sponsors, faculty advisors and of course students for your commitment to the energy industry and growing its future work force.”

A complete listing of IBA sponsors worldwide will be published in the July EXPLORER.